The publication this morning of the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health's paper on the business case for taking mental health seriously could hardly come at a better time.
The report conservatively estimates the cost to UK plc, solely through sickness absence, staff turnover and reduced productivity at work, is £26bn a year and demonstrates that mental health is the dominant health problem in people of working age.
What is stunning is that nearly 60% of the overall cost comes from presenteeism at work, where people feel too stigmatised and fearful of discrimination to disclose an illness or take time off to recover because of the prevailing taboo at work.
Our view is that much has been done to improve potential employees' attitudes to return to work and that now we must focus on tackling employers' attitudes. Stand to Reason is developing a programme to bring about cultural change in the workplace that will be piloted in the first quarter of next year, providing training and raising awareness to employers.
The report also shows that problems with other physical illnesses escalate with age and often spike dramatically after retirement, unlike mental health, which is spread quite equally across age groups. It is to be warmly welcomed that this issue is clearly now on the government's agenda and Dame Carol Black, no less, whose brief it is to address the issue at Cabinet level following her recent call for evidence, was amongst a large panel at the press conference who whole-heartedly welcomed the report and were asked to respond with recommendations as to what steps we must take next.
We are committed to putting service user trainers at the heart of the programme who are also highly effective in the working lives as the evidence shows that direct contact with a group that is discriminated against is the best way to change hearts and minds.
The good news from the coal-face is that our experience in talking to leading employers is that they already understand the business case in quite a sophisticated way for looking at positive approaches to mental health rather than the "Ostrich" school of management exemplified by 50% of employers who think that none of their employees will suffer from any mental illness during their working life.
That said, the report will be an invaluable tool for groups like Stand to Reason who are attempting to attract the attention of business leaders who will see at a glance that these cost pass straight to their bottom line. The challenge we face is to ensure that some employers do not respond to the report by attempting to screen out mental health problems as the real costs of mental health are disclosed.
· Jonathan Naess is the director of Stand to Reason, a service user-led organisation which campaigns against stigma around mental health issues
